Today we are talking with Jean-Claude Koven, author of "Going Deeper - How to Make Sense of Your Life When Your Life Makes No Sense." His book is an entertaining and inspirational leap into the deep spiritual truths facing metaphysical enthusiasts of the new millennium. Welcome to Reader Views.
Juanita: Thank you for joining us today Jean-Claude, we are very excited to hear more about your new book. Please elaborate on the storyline of "Going Deeper".
Jean-Claude: Although my name appears on the cover of "Going Deeper", I have to admit that I was not its author in the classical meaning of the word. After committing to writing the book, I jotted down some notes regarding the topics I thought the book would cover. If you ever heard the saying, "When man makes plans, God laughs," this would be a perfect example. After a few days of doing it my way, another force took over and the real message of the book kicked into high gear.
I now realize the process is called a "download." It is very similar to channeling except the channel (in this case, me) does not perceive himself to be separate from the source. I was in active dialogue with a higher intelligence that turned out to be a part of me. I have since discovered that all people have access to their own higher source of information if they learn how to make contact with it. Much of the material in the book subtly deals with this process.
Juanita: Is there any of you in the lead character, Larry?
Jean-Claude: From my perspective, no author is ever complete divorced from his characters. We each house many, many different subpersonalities that play a role in our lives. Some are primary and take the lead most of the time; others may be suppressed or dormant, but they still significantly influence our behavior. As the first few chapters took shape, I perceived Larry as distinctly separate from me. Then the similarities began to creep in. By the time I got half way through the book, we were intertwined like two strands of DNA. In fact, I was experiencing (in real life - if there is such a thing) everything Larry was experiencing in the story.
Juanita: What inspired you to write your book?
Jean-Claude: That's like asking what inspired a pregnant woman to give birth. The book was growing and growing inside of me until I could no longer contain it and still cling to life.
Juanita: Why is "Going Deeper" such an important book at this time?
Jean-Claude: I'm not certain I'm the one to answer that question. In the end, "Going Deeper" was written primarily for me. It allowed me to define my boundaries and then move past them again and again. It was a journal of self exploration that provided answers about most of the nagging questions that have been pestering me since I was a small child. This is a very personal thing and, at the same time, it is the journey of every Lightworker (Wanderer) who has come to this planet to serve. We all have a burning desire to know who we really are, why we're here, and above all, what we're really meant to be doing.
Juanita: What sets "Going Deeper" apart from all the other metaphysical books on the shelves these days?
Jean-Claude: "Going Deeper" is not about self improvement. It is written for the tens of millions of highly evolved beings who came to Earth to be of service during this time of transition. It starts with the premise that we're not on Earth to win at the power and admiration games that so many people play within the illusion. In other words, "Going Deeper" isn't about how to become more popular or how to attract more money or romance into your life. Rather, it deals with awakening to the purpose for being here.
Juanita: Who are the "Wanderers" and how do you know if you are one of them?
Jean-Claude: Wanderers, also called Lightworkers, Starseeds, Planetary Servers, -- and, I suspect a host of other names - are beings who lovingly incarnated on this planet to help midwife the shift into the next paradigm. Most of us feel alienated as if we knew deep down inside that Earth is not our real home. We tend to be strangers in a strange land and often suffer from allergies. Most of us feel far more comfortable with children, plants, and animals than we do with most adults. Wanderers find much of what people do with their own lives and to each other somewhat baffling. That said, there is almost no way to know with absolute certainty that you are a Wanderer. On the other hand, you would be absolutely sure if you weren't one. I suspect that if you even wonder about it, there a very good chance you are one of the beings who came to serve.
Juanita: We certainly are living in turbulent times - environmental changes, war, economic instability, and declining morality etc. Why are we finding ourselves in such chaos?
Jean-Claude: Think of us as tectonic plates moving against each other. If we are willing to release tension then we simply glide into new positions. On the other hand, if we have an investment in existing beliefs and hold onto them for dear life, the resulting stickiness is like a sudden cracking of the plate resulting in a major earthquake or tsunami.
Our entire solar system is traversing a section of space called the photon belt that radiates out from the black hole (the central sun) at the center of our galaxy. This small sliver of our galaxy has an unusually dense field that is meant to trigger major shifts in every form of consciousness, whether sentient or inanimate. Two of the planets, Uranus and Neptune have recently undergone significant polar shifts. Our own magnetic poles are already drifting at an increasing rate and we appear to be next in line to experience such a correction.
This force is like a fast moving river buffeting each human being. Following the example of the tectonic plates, each of us has the choice to trust and allow the river to take us downstream or to resist. The more people fear, the tighter they hold onto their old beliefs.
Juanita: What are some of the old belief patterns that keep people trapped from evolving to the next level of consciousness?
Jean-Claude: Any belief ultimately turns out to be a trap. You can make a list a mile long describing every aspect of your life, your physical attributes, your likes and dislikes, your thoughts, your beliefs and you wouldn't begin to depict who you really are. Each item on your list is little more than the way you choose to project yourself into the illusion. None of these can make the journey.
Although it appears otherwise, the identifier of religious belief is the largest single obstacle to ascension (the lightness of being required to explore the deeper regions of rabbit holes) not because people have them, but because they believe their particular way of seeing things is truth. If you examined how most people choose their religions, you'd discover that the vast majority never really did. The religions they claim as their own chose them, usually through the circumstance of birth or enculturation. It's human nature to want to belong and feeling lost and abandoned at the edge of a vast galaxy in an incomprehensibly large universe, we understandably cry out for mommy or daddy to comfort us. Religions give us community and answers that, for many, make the challenges of our lives more bearable.
People are more easily attracted to a religious concept if it is claimed to be the word of a deity. Imagine the priesthood saying they thought their teaching might prove interesting for the congregation to explore for a while. Any good marketer knows there's a better chance of filling the seats if people are made to believe that you have the only true path to God's heavenly mansion and that unless you follow it, you (and the other heathen, nonbelievers) are doomed to an eternity of unspeakable damnation. Fear, it turns out, is an excellent motivator.
It has become politically correct to advocate embracing religious freedom. However, just because each person is theoretically free to worship according to his or her conscience, why would anyone one automatically assume this to be the case? In fact, it's just the opposite. The vast majority of the 5,460,000 people (84% of the world's population) who identify with a particular religion took precious little part in the decision to believe as they do. By in large, they joined their family or friends in a sense of community under the umbrella of God. What they know of their faith comes from scriptures interpreted by the clergy and other believers. Virtually everything about their beliefs are prepackaged, predigested, and complete. All they are required to do is follow as they are told and good things must surely come to them according to the will and mercy of their particular God.
Imagine going to the same ice cream store every day to have a vanilla cone because that was the only flavor you allowed yourself to eat. You choose it because that's what your parents eat as did their parents, and their parents before them, as far back as anyone can remember. What if one day you suddenly realized that there were many choices available to you, each a different color, with strange, exotic names like Rocky Road or Pralines 'n Cream? Over the years one chain, Baskin and Robbins, has tempted its customers with over 1,000 different flavors - in addition to vanilla.
But that's small potatoes compared to the variety of spiritual choices available. At last count there were over 10,500 different religions and denominations on this planet. How can anyone, vaguely aware of a handful, continue to pretend that his or hers is the right way to worship while some (or all) of the others are fatally flawed?
In the end, most religions are systems of beliefs, requiring an element of faith to accept as truth concepts which cannot be empirically tested. And by its very nature, belief is a two-edged sword. On the one hand it serves to link man to some of the unexplainable mysteries of life; on the other, it easily leads one to judgment and constraints that stifle curiosity.
Juanita: Through Larry's journey, plants and animals plays an integral part in the imparting of spiritual wisdoms. Talk to us about the importance of nature in this great mystery of awakening.
Jean-Claude: In the Oneness, everything is a part of the All That Is. Animals, plants, humans, voices from the higher realms are all aspects of God and the phrase, "God is all that is" is literally true. This is what R. Buckminster Fuller must have understood when he said, "God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun." His words, when I first read them many years ago, lodged in my mind. But I didn't get their full import until many years later, during my first visit to Findhorn, the renowned spiritual community in northeast Scotland. It was there, sitting in a circle with my fellow newbies, that the penny dropped. One young man in our group, Peter, suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, wow, I finally see it. It's not that God is in all things; it's that God is all things."
His exclamation triggered two remarkable realizations for me. First, the obvious is obvious only to those who are sufficiently present to see it. The delivery of Peter's life-changing epiphany had virtually no effect on the rest of the group. Our facilitator was so consumed by his orientation agenda that he missed the moment completely. Thanking Peter for his contribution, he simply asked the group if anyone else had anything to share. Second, what Peter said is literally true. In an instant, Bucky's words became crystal clear. God is indeed a verb. He is not the creator. He is the ongoing unfoldment of creation itself. There is nothing that is not a part of this unfolding. Thus there can be nothing separate from God. God is infinite and infinity is One. From that moment, everything in my life began to change. It wasn't immediate; it was rather like a giant oil tanker slowly making a U-turn. As if I were facing in a new direction, I looked at the world in a new way "How," I asked myself, "do we dupe ourselves so completely? How come so few people see what Bucky and Peter see? How could I myself have been so blind?" When we perceive God as a noun, we envision him as the creator, the architect of, and therefore separate from, his creation. Identifying ourselves as part of that creation, we see ourselves not only separate from our source but separate from each other and all other manifest things as well. This is the fatally flawed axiom underlying virtually all of the world's faiths. They may collectively call for love and peace, but the rampant divisiveness, greed, and competition that currently pervade human culture are the only inevitable outcomes of their separative philosophies.
Once I viewed God as a verb instead of a noun, my perception of life shifted. Everything around me, manifest or no, became God. There was only God. When someone spoke to me, it was with God's voice; when I listened, it was with God's heart. I invite you to try it. The small shift from noun to verb may well be the antidote to the forbidden fruit that banished us from Eden. As you begin to view God not as the creator but as the constantly changing dance of creation itself, you'll discover him in everything you see - including yourself. The old you - that fish swimming blindly in search of water - fades away as you dissolve into the simple meaning of it all. Perhaps, when your vision finally clears, you will find yourself living in the Promised Land that so many others are still praying for.
Juanita: These are profound words of wisdom Jean-Claude. You mentioned earlier that when beginning the writing process for "Going Deeper", you started jotting down notes, then the force of your higher intelligence took over and you began to "download" from this place, making "Going Deeper" more a journal of self-exploration. For your readers, that would like to access this part of themselves, what would you suggest? Of course, reading your book is serving as a catalyst of transformation for many people, but do you have any trigger questions or thoughts that would help them as they sit with paper and pen?
Jean-Claude: One component that always precedes manifestation is Intention. This factor, coupled with Attention are they only two attributes that any of us really can control. Together, they make up the cosmic formula: A + I = M [Attention plus Intention equals Manifestation]. Each of us makes contact with our higher selves each night in our dream state. The contact is also with us during each waking moment, but vibrates just out of the range of our conscious awareness; not unlike our inability to see infrared which has a frequency just below the visible spectrum. The first step in rekindling one's awareness of the presence of the higher self is to set the intention to do so. Then, rekindle your curiosity and ask a meaningful question. By the term "meaningful question," I mean try to stay in the larger, archetypal realm rather than in the lower spheres of the ego. It would be far more productive to ask, "Why are so many humans unable to find loving, fulfilling relationships?" then "Why can't I attract my ideal mate?" The next step requires patience and discipline of Attention. In this part of the exercise, you consciously hold the question before you as you go through the day. Let everything you experience become filtered through the question you have asked. Once your higher self realizes that you have truly taken the first steps in the awakening process, it will move heaven and Earth to assist you. Be open to receive answers in the most unexpected and unlikely manners. Chance pieces of conversation, signposts, radio interviews, and much, much more are used by the universe (your higher self) to inform you.
In time you will cultivate your inner senses and can pick up these signals more readily. Don't forget to monitor and journal your dreams. You will notice a profound shift in them once you've committed to this process.
Juanita: Who have been your primary spiritual teachers and influences?
Jean-Claude: As I indicated earlier, once I woke up to the realization that there is nothing in all of creation which is not God I began treating everything I see and everyone I meet as my divine teacher. I have been blessed along my journey to break bread with many masters, yet my most profound teachings often came in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times. Many plants and animals were with me as part of the journey.
Juanita: What will "Going Deeper" teach us about personal power and our divine birthright?
Jean-Claude: Everything. Nothing. "Going Deeper" is a very unusual writing. I have read it seven times and each reading introduces concepts I hadn't seen before and presents information in a novel way that didn't appear the earlier times through the text. I am told that it contains energetic keys to unlock distant memories. Many people write me telling them that the book changed their lives and provided a degree of clarity they hadn't been able to obtain before reading it. I can only speak to what "Going Deeper" has done for me: it has unleashed a never-ending torrent of awareness, reconnecting me to my own personal source, reaffirming my purpose on this planet.
Juanita: Do you think you will be writing another book in the future?
Jean-Claude: I have recently become a featured columnist for UPI's (United Press International) Religion and Spirituality Forum which takes up a fair amount of my writing time. However, a second book tentatively entitled, Heart to Heart Relationships, is already in the works. It deals with what a man needs to do in order to make himself ready for a sacred relationship with the goddess that lies dormant in all women.
Juanita: Jean-Claude, please tell your readers how they may contact you or find out more about "Going Deeper" and your other endeavors.
Jean-Claude: The best place to keep up with my writings (both books and articles) is on the Prism House web site; www.prismhouse.com In addition to being able to read the first two chapters of "Going Deeper", visitors can sign up for my highly irregular newsletter and view all my UPI columns. My touring schedule is also on that web site and can be viewed by clicking on Author's Calendar. "Going Deeper" is available at all major booksellers, metaphysical stores, and online book stores. If your readers wish to have a personally inscribed copy, they can order it on the Prism House web site.
Juanita: Well Jean-Claude, you have given us much to consider and ponder. Thank you for being so open with your thoughts today. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with your readers?
Jean-Claude: Lighten up. Too many of us fall into the trap of taking ourselves far too seriously. There's a reason we call the process of wakening: enlightenment instead of enheaviment. Each morning, when you first awaken, don't get out of bed until you can name at least ten things for which you are deeply and genuinely grateful. Find the light within you and use it as a blessing to smile upon at least three people during the course of each day. Act as if the entire fate of humanity depended on how you conducted your life during the next twenty four hours. Do these few things and all the rest will surely follow.
